“Boko Haram stole some of the cattle, and we lost the rest because we had to leave,” said the chief of a community of 8,000 from the islands of Lake Chad. They sought shelter in an area called Garin Wazan. Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

Most of the people now sheltering in Garin Wazan and Kintchandi had already been displaced at least once before by the fighting. Their lives have been turned upside down by this conflict. Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

Families in Garin Wazan gather to collect water, which is in scarce supply. MSF has significantly increased its water and sanitation activities in the area, and is concerned about an outbreak of hepatitis E declared by the Nigerien authorities in April. Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

Students learn in a makeshift school in Garin Wazan. According to the United Nations, 30 schools in Diffa are closed due to the conflict, and those that remain lack basic equipment. Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

In addition to the larger camp sites in Kintchandi and Garin Wazan, there are smaller clusters of temporary homes where people have sought safe shelter along the main road that traverses the Diffa region. Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

Access to health care is still lacking in Diffa. Outside of the locations where MSF is working, the displaced population has to pay for health services, which is a heavy burden. Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

Diffa has been a center of displacement for over two years, and hundreds of thousands of people there are wholly dependent on humanitarian aid. Photo by Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF

May 10, 2017

Fighting between Boko Haram and militaries from the areas around southeastern Niger has led to more than 240,000 displaced people and refugees taking shelter in Niger's Diffa region. A third of the displaced people in Diffa have been forced to abandon their homes two or more times due to violence in the last few years. Around the towns of Garin Wazan and Kintchandi, many of the tens of thousands of people who fled Bosso, a town near the Nigeria border last June, have sought safety. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing medical and mental health care in these areas but there are still a lot of unmet needs.